Another year, another CES, and with it comes another Afeela model by Sony Honda Mobility. This time, it’s simply called the Afeela Prototype 2026, and it’s mostly unchanged from the Afeela 1. Except for its scale anyway, as this new one has been made to suit the SUV aficionados out there.
The joint venture company was kind enough to show a side-by-side comparison of the two. And sure enough, the Prototype 2026 just looks like it was vertically pulled apart slightly compared to the Afeela 1. That being said, Sony Honda Mobility has not shared size figures for the new SUV prototype. Ditto technical specs like the battery or power output.
That being said, the JV did share a sprinkle of features that will be in the production model of the SUV. As before, the car starts off with Level 2+ driver assistance, with the goal of Level 4 at some point in the future. Then there’s the Afeela Personal Agent, that “leverages Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service” to let you talk to you car. Finally, it will “utilise solutions from the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, an advanced suite of automotive products and solutions from Qualcomm”.
On that note, Sony Honda Mobility says that it has “plans to develop a production model based on this prototype for the launch in the US market as early as 2028”. As for the Afeela 1, Engadget reports that it will only be shipping to its first customers at the end of 2026, provided they are in California. The company did say that it is expanding to Arizona in 2027. Similarly, it will be in Japan within the first half of the year. No word on other markets just yet.
